Physiotherapeutic treatment can be essential at different times, either for those who suffer from chronic body pain or even in more serious cases, as in movement rehabilitation. Usually, after an evaluation, the health professional will say how many sessions of physiotherapy are necessary for the patient to improve.
Each patient has particularities, so there is no rule when it comes to establishing several physiotherapy sessions. Each person will need to undergo a different treatment and this treatment can often be done in one or two sessions, but there are also those cases where the patient will take months to get his recovery. Therefore, the health professional needs a tool where he can control this number and thus adequately monitor the treatments.
Before we continue, we need to ask: Do you already know our system Ninsaúde Apolo for health clinics? The health software Ninsaúde Apolo has an agile and complete schedule, personalized electronic medical records for each specialty, and with legal validity, teleconsultation, financial control, and much more. Schedule a demo or try the Ninsaúde Apolo clinic's software right now!
The first tip we can give to any healthcare professional who wants to make their work easier is that you use management software in your clinic. The software, in addition to bringing more security, also has tools and functionalities that streamline the process not only attendance but also clinical management. In physiotherapy clinics, where it is necessary to control sessions per patient, the use of the software is more than essential, because in addition to the advantages already mentioned, eliminates manual counting work.
But after all, how to control the physiotherapy sessions of your patients, so that you stay on top of how many sessions have already been carried out or how many are still missing to finish the treatment? In the Ninsaúde Apolo software, it is possible to carry out this control through recurrences, a tool available in the agenda created especially to assist certain specialties.
Do you see your patients in consultations that are repeated with a certain frequency? So this feature is great for you! It can be used not only by physiotherapists but also psychologists, and speech therapists, among others.
Recurring schedules - what they are and how they work
Recurring schedules also called simple as recurrences, primarily function as a reminder. They will be visible in the agenda, highlighted by a different color from the other appointments, and the user, when scheduling the recurrence, can choose whether he wants it to be repeated weekly, monthly, or annually.
When creating the recurrence, you can also choose a specific date for the sessions to end, or if you prefer, choose to terminate after x number of occurrences or even repeat forever. In addition, it is also possible to choose which days of the week the schedule will be repeated.
As mentioned above, the recurrence will initially act as a reminder in the calendar. As the date in question approaches, the secretary just needs to confirm with the patient whether he will attend or not. If the answer is yes, she can turn this recurrence into a schedule and flag it as confirmed. If the answer is no, it can skip the recurrence.
When clicking on the recurrence to confirm or ignore it, the system also shows us the total number of sessions scheduled and how many have already taken place. For example, in the image above we can see that the patient is scheduled through a recurrence that was programmed to repeat 5 times, that is, the patient scheduled 5 sessions. Of the 5 sessions scheduled in the package, the patient has already used 4, so the agenda shows us the information "4/5" just below the service.
In some cases, the system can show the number of sessions already used, but not exactly the total number. This happens due to the different recurrence options. For example, if you choose the "Repeat always" option, there will be no end date, so the system will only show "...", as in the example below:
Another important piece of information is that when a recurrence arrives in your last session, it stops showing new dates to be confirmed for that patient because, in theory, his treatment is over. It's like the example we mentioned above, where the patient had already done 4 sessions, the total being 5. When confirming the 5th (and last) session, the system closes the recurrence, and in this way, you are also aware that the treatment of that patient has come to an end.
In recurring schedules, there is also the history of occurrences, which aims to show which dates were used by the patient. As much as the patient has scheduled several sessions, he will not always attend all dates scheduled consecutively and often ends up having to reschedule, thus moving on to the next date. So that there are no doubts whether the patient attended on date x or date y if he canceled or confirmed the sessions, just view the history of occurrences.
When accessing the patient's record, it is also possible to view some histories, and among them is the history of recurrences. To better exemplify, let's analyze the history of the patient, shown below. Fernanda has a package of 8 physiotherapy sessions, and of these 8 sessions, she has already used 3. We can also observe that the sessions are held weekly, every Thursday. So far she has only attended 1 time, and she has two other dates scheduled (remembering that she is entitled to 8 sessions in total), so the system shows us the information "3/8" at the top.
It is worth remembering that in addition to these tools, Ninsaúde Apolo has many other features that help not only physiotherapists in their appointments, but also the clinic as a whole. Did you like our tips? Keep following the blog for more articles like this one, and if you still don't use management software to make your appointments, come and meet Ninsaúde Apolo.